Doing the Unexpected this Christmas

Posted: December 20, 2011 by Rob Voyle

We live in a violent world where the response to violence is to be moreviolent and overwhelm by force that which frightens us. Sometimes theviolence is physical, but in many cases, especially in the church, wecommit intellectual, emotional, and spiritual violence on one anotheroften with great theological justification. But that is not the way oflove that we get to celebrate at this time of the year.

Just when humanity would expect God to do something more violent and ridthe earth of each one of us God does the unexpected and comes and lives asone of us. Every element of the incarnation and Jesus' story is one ofdoing the unexpected. Born of humble and questionable parentage. And thenhe hangs out with the poor, lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, and anyother marginalized group. It's just not what we expected.

Yesterday I received in the mail a copy of "Sweet Fruit from the BitterTree: 61 Stories of Creative and Compassionate Ways out of Conflict." Itsa wonderful collection of short stories of people who have done theunexpected in the midst of conflict to create an opportunity for peace andtransformation.

The stories were gathered by Mark Andreas from a variety of sources aroundthe world. One of the commonalities Mark notes is that in each story theperson maintains their connection with the person they are in conflictwith, but with a twist - the connection is at a place of a shared valueand not the place of conflict.

For example a women is walking home at night and is being followed by aman that makes her very uncomfortable. She turns and says to her pursuer," I am feeling very nervous, would you walk me home." At which point theman takes her by the arm and walks her home. Sadly later that night theman raped another woman.

For the woman in the story her doing the radically unexpected called forththe "gentlemanly" nature of the man something they both could value. Ifshe had done the expected thing of trying to run or escape it would mostlikely have called forth the rapist nature of the man.

When God and humankind are in conflict, God does the unexpected. By livingas one of us Jesus is expressing God's deepest valuing of humanity anddesire to stay connected with us. When this radically unexpected thing isexperienced in our hearts it calls forth the best from us - something thatboth we and God can value.

From my experience, people don't change because I hate them, at leastchange in the direction I desire. If you find yourself in conflict askyourself: Is my fear and anger getting me what I want?If it isn't, ask what would be the radically unexpected thing to do. Whatis something that we both could share and value?

I pray that in the midst of doing the unexpected you experience the joy ofChristmas.

If you would like to read a complete story from "Sweet fruit from theBitter Tree" or find information on how to purchase it please go tohttp://realpeoplepress.com/blog/ . For people who love stories and like to"see" processes in action rather than read books of theory this is anincredible resource and very much in keeping with this season of peace.